Gerri Santoro
{{Short description|American manslaughter victim (1935–1964)}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox person
|name=Gerri Santoro
|image=Geraldine Twerdy (1935-1964) portrait.png
|caption=
|birth_name=Geraldine Twerdy
|birth_date={{birth date|1935|08|16}}{{cite web |last=Bloom |first=Marcy |author-link=Marcy Bloom |title=The Woman in the Photo |url=https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2007/06/08/the-woman-in-the-photo/ |website=Rewire News Group |access-date=18 November 2020 |date=June 8, 2007 |archive-date=November 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112020128/https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2007/06/08/the-woman-in-the-photo/ |url-status=live }}
|birth_place=Connecticut, United States
|death_date={{death date and age|1964|06|08|1935|08|16}}
|death_place=Connecticut, United States
|occupation=
|spouse={{marriage|Sam Santoro|1953|1963|reason=separated}}
|partner= Clyde Dixon
|known_for=
}}
Geraldine "Gerri" Santoro ({{nee|Twerdy}}; August 16, 1935{{snd}}June 8, 1964) was an American woman who died after attempting a self-induced abortion in 1964. A police photograph of her dead body, published by Ms. in 1973, became a symbol for the abortion-rights movement in the United States.
Biography
Santoro was raised, along with 14 siblings, on the farm of a Ukrainian-American family in Coventry, Connecticut.{{cite web |last=Stroebel |first=Ken |url=http://eileen.250x.com/GerriS/Gerri_Norwich.htm|title=Sister: Story of photo that galvanized a movement needs telling |work=Norwich Bulletin |date=March 9, 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070505060856/http://eileen.250x.com/GerriS/Gerri_Norwich.htm |archive-date=5 May 2007}} She was described by those who knew her as "fun-loving" and "free-spirited". At age 18, she married Sam Santoro; the couple had two daughters together.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/31/movies/film-festival-review-the-woman-behind-a-grisly-photo.html|title=FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW; The Woman Behind a Grisly Photo (Published 1995)|first=Janet|last=Maslin|authorlink=Janet Maslin|date=March 31, 1995|newspaper=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312101151/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/31/movies/film-festival-review-the-woman-behind-a-grisly-photo.html|archive-date=March 12, 2016}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-01-ca-63671-story.html|title='Leona's Sister': Transfixing Tale of an Unwilling Symbol|date=November 1, 1995|website=Los Angeles Times|first=Howard|last=Rosenberg|access-date=March 6, 2021|archive-date=March 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306160054/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-01-ca-63671-story.html|url-status=live}}
Circumstances of death
In 1963, her husband's domestic abuse prompted Santoro to leave, and she and her daughters returned to her childhood home. She took a job at Mansfield State Training School, where she met another employee, Clyde Dixon. The two began an extramarital affair and Santoro became pregnant. When Santoro's husband announced he was coming from California to visit his daughters, she feared for her life. On June 8, 1964, twenty-eight weeks into her pregnancy, she and Dixon checked into the Norwich Motel in Norwich, Connecticut, under aliases. They intended to perform a self-induced abortion, using surgical instruments and information from a textbook which Dixon had obtained from Milton Ray Morgan, a teacher at the Mansfield school. Dixon fled the motel after Santoro began to bleed. She died, and her body was found the following morning by a maid. Dixon and Morgan were arrested three days later. Dixon was charged with manslaughter, and Morgan was charged with conspiring to commit an illegal abortion.{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2512&dat=19640612&id=SSRIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LAANAAAAIBAJ&pg=1953,5630375|publisher=The Morning Record|via=Google News|date=June 12, 1964|title=Man Sought In Death Of Woman Arrested|access-date=March 6, 2021|archive-date=October 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201006090318/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2512&dat=19640612&id=SSRIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LAANAAAAIBAJ&pg=1953,5630375|url-status=live}} Dixon was sentenced to a year and day in prison.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-a-harrowing-photo-of-one-womans-death-became-an-iconic-pro-choice-symbol/|title=How a Harrowing Photo of One Woman's Death Became an Iconic Pro-Choice Symbol|website=Vice|first=Amanda|last=Arnold|date=October 26, 2016|access-date=March 6, 2021|archive-date=March 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301054942/https://www.vice.com/en/article/evgdpw/how-a-harrowing-photo-of-one-womans-death-became-an-iconic-pro-choice-symbol|url-status=live}}
Photograph
Police took a photograph of Santoro's body as she was found nude, kneeling, and collapsed upon the floor, with a bloody towel between her legs. The picture was used in placards and famously published in Ms. in April 1973, all without identifying Santoro.{{cite news |last1=Rosenfeld |first1=Megan |title=The Death of an Ordinary Woman |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/11/06/the-death-of-an-ordinary-woman/2d26fbe1-c0ee-4497-b089-953073e572f3/ |access-date=18 November 2020 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=6 November 1995 |archive-date=May 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220504030011/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/11/06/the-death-of-an-ordinary-woman/2d26fbe1-c0ee-4497-b089-953073e572f3/ |url-status=live }} The photo has since become an abortion-rights symbol, used to illustrate that access to legal and professionally performed abortion reduces deaths from unsafe abortion.
Leona Gordon, Santoro's sister, saw the photo in Ms. and recognized the subject. Santoro's daughters had been told their mother died in a car accident, which they believed until the photo became widely distributed. Of the photo's publication, Santoro's daughter, Joannie Santoro-Griffin, was quoted in 1995 as saying: "How dare they flaunt this? How dare they take my beautiful mom and put this in front of the public eye?" Later, Joannie became an abortion-rights activist, attending the March for Women's Lives in 2004 with her teenage daughter Tara and Gerri Santoro's sister Leona,{{Cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A37967-2004Apr23?language=printer |archive-url=https://archive.today/20100201205653/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A37967-2004Apr23?language=printer |archive-date=2010-02-01 |title=A Family's March to Redemption: 3 Generations Join Abortion Rights Rally in Honor of Woman Who Died |first=Elizabeth |last=Williamson |date=April 24, 2004 |page=B1 |newspaper=The Washington Post}} and blogging in memory of her mother.{{Cite web |url=http://journals.democraticunderground.com/dancingAlone/4 |title=Joannie Santoro, June 8, 2006: Remembering 42 years ago today |access-date=January 16, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108155607/http://journals.democraticunderground.com/dancingAlone/4 |archive-date=January 8, 2009 |url-status=dead |website=Democratic Underground}}
In 1995, Jane Gillooly, an independent filmmaker from Boston, Massachusetts, interviewed Gordon, Santoro's daughters, and others for a documentary about Santoro's life, Leona's Sister Gerri.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wbur.org/artery/2019/12/03/leonas-sister-gerri-storytelling-abortion-debate|title=25 Years Later, 'Leona's Sister Gerri' Reminds Us Of The Complexity Storytelling Brings To The Abortion Debate|website=WBUR-FM|date=December 3, 2019|first=Jenn|last=Stanley|access-date=March 6, 2021|archive-date=February 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210217093323/https://www.wbur.org/artery/2019/12/03/leonas-sister-gerri-storytelling-abortion-debate|url-status=live}} The film was initially broadcast on the PBS series P.O.V. on June 1, 1995. It was later screened at film festivals, opening in the United States on November 2, 1995. In the documentary, Leona expressed that she was initially shocked by the photograph's publication but that "as years went by... [she] thought it was good that it was printed."{{cite AV media |people=Gillooly, Jane (director, producer); C.L. Monrose (producer); Kaufman, Jane (producer) |date=November 2, 1995 |title=Leona's Sister Gerri |medium=Documentary }}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20091009184413/http://www.lifeandlibertyforwomen.org/about_gerri.html Life and Liberty for Women: About Gerri]
- [http://www.sapphireblue.com/25years/ Roe v. Wade 25 Years: In Memoriam]
- [http://www.janegillooly.com/films/leonas-sister-gerri-1995/ Leona’s Sister Gerri, by filmmaker Jane Gillooly]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20190909020821/http://www.pbs.org/pov/watch/leonassistergerri/ PBS P.O.V. archive: Leona's Sister Gerri]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20021025203613/http://www.eileen.250x.com/GerriS/SantoroTranscript2.htm Transcript of film Leona's Sister Gerri]
- {{IMDb name|1196296}}
- {{findagrave|33047040}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santoro, Gerri}}
Category:People from Coventry, Connecticut
Category:American people of Ukrainian descent
Category:Accidental deaths in Connecticut
Category:American manslaughter victims
Category:Abortion in the United States
Category:People notable for being the subject of a specific photograph